Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:55 pm on 2 February 2021.
Of course I see the attraction of what has been proposed for Scotland, but it's £100 million, as the Member has mentioned. Week after week, he puts to me propositions for spending that cost tens or hundreds of millions of pounds. What we have in Wales is the council tax benefit scheme, a unique scheme in Wales, in which we topped up as a Welsh Government the £220 million that we were provided with by the Westminster Government when, against our wishes, devolution of council tax benefit was carried out. We've added fresh Government money to that this year—another £5.4 million, I think—to make sure that that scheme can go on being operated. Over 300,000 families in Wales benefit from it, the vast bulk of them paying no council tax at all. That is a way, I think, of protecting those people who most need protection against rising bills at times of restraint, while requiring others of us to make a contribution that we can better make to sustain public services here in Wales. So, we have our own way of doing it, and I think it has many advantages. As to Mr Price's final point, I do agree with him there. We have asked the UK Government, as has the Government in Scotland and the Northern Ireland Executive, for simple flexibilities to allow us to manage end-of-year expenditure in this extraordinary time. Sadly, we don't appear to be gaining any traction with them.